A tipster keeps wetting our appetite by sending pictures and pointing to a site called The2HeadedDog so we thought we'd take a look. As the name connotes, it's all about a two headed dog. That theme carries through to several sections of the site. On the homepage, there are "Tricks Du Jour," a collection of really strange looking videos, all of which, incorporate a logo of a dog with two heads. Another section, called "Dog Pound," allows people to upload interpretive images of the two headed dog logo. A section called "Freestyle" appears to be a bunch of "on-the-street" amateur rap takes incorporating the phrase "two headed dog." Lastly, a section called "Arcade" contains, as the name suggests, three online games which are actually quite fun to play, especially the ones called "Ass Blaster" and Mailman Attack." A little addictive actually.
Of course, the theme here is "two" so it's likely some brand that is about to re-launch or introduce a new product is behind the stunt. The site is registered to Pier Borra in New York which, upon searching, doesn't point to much other than the CEO of healthcare company CORA Rehabilitation Clinics which seems unlikely to be the type of company which would engage in stealth marketing of this sort. As is always the case with these things, it's only a matter of time before that cat is out of the bag. Stay tuned.
UPDATE: Comments point to this being something from MTV.
UPDATE 2: A reader named "James," claiming to be in the know, assures us this is for the re-launch of MTV2.
Amsterdam-based BSUR recently completed a unique street marketing program in three German cities for its client, Wrangler Jeans. As part of the company's "Wanted" campaign, one-ton ice blocks were placed around the cities as if they had dropped from the sky. Inside the ice blocks were Wrangler jeans with WANTED sprayed on them. Upon discovery, people stared at, touched, chopped, climbed on and, otherwise, just plain had fun with the gigantic ice blocks. Wrangler Promotion teams took pictures of people interacting with the blocks and placed them in area retailer window displays where the frozen ice block theme was continued. Full size images are here, here and here.
In September, Delray Beach, Florida-based ON-CARD introduced a reverse direct marketing concept, not unlike current call-to redeem-prize direct marketing programs, which allows marketers to provide free gifts to recipients provided they, upon receipt of the offer, call ON-CARD tool-free and provide any information the marketer has asked ON-CARD to obtain. Of course, during the call, other offers, which , no doubt require the opening of a wallet, are foisted upon the caller in hopes they bite. The program, which was just approved by the USPS, makes the offer via standard direct mail. Verizon is one of the first marketers to use ON-CARD.
We've all heard of it and we're all guilty of it. Come clean. You know what we're talking about. Those intelligent sounding phrases you hear coming out of your mouth when you, clearly, have no idea what you are talking about. East Bank Communications has collected some of these and provided a translator, called Dr. Gary's JiveCoder, to decode your industry standard statements and mindless blather-speak.
Unfortunately, it's not that funny. However, visitors can submit their own phrases (via a form that collects contact info, of course) but can't offer a funny decode. Submitters have to rely on East Bank Communications to email their translation back which is then added to the JiveCoder.
While East Bank is using industry humor to gain awareness and collect leads, they should at least allows those who are more humorous to submit statements and translations.
LVMH watchmakming company TAG Heuer is launching a new "What Are Your Made Of" ad campaign featuring actress Uma Thurman, golf legend Tiger Woods, tennis champion Maria Sharapova, and NASCAR icon Jeff Gordon. With Thurman and Sharapova, TAG Heuer hopes to shift the brand from sports focused of one that reflects both sports and glamour
While it's become almost normal to occasionally mistake a 13 year old girl for an 18 year old, the sexing up of tweens continues to spiral even younger as kids discover sex appeal earlier - and marketers capitalize on it. It's become so common to see stripper-esque tweens it's likely, in a few years, we'll soon see a babies pop out wearing thongs.
In a CBC News interview, Wendy Mesley asks media expert and author, Shari Graydon, "Why are [retailers] selling bras for little girls?" Graydon, not so subtly lays partial blame on marketers answering, "Well, I suspect that the advertisers would tell you 'we're doing this because theres a demand for it.' And they sort of escape --or avoid-- acknowledging that they have created the demand."
From Bratz Dolls to padded bras to Ashlee Simpson to sex bracelets, tween girls are being taught, at a very early age, that sex appeal is very powerful. Explaining the reason she buys sexy clothes, twelve year old Amanda says, like it's a good thing, "You get more attention. And strange guys come up to you and try and get you to go to nightclubs."
Amanda's friend, Natasha adds, "A lot of guys stare." That stare, perhaps, comes from rectifying the sensations that occur when seeing a sexy "woman" with the stunning realization the girl is just twelve.
It's creepy.
In today's culture, your daughter isn't your mother's daughter anymore.
She's more like a Maxim model without knowing what that imagery connotes.
In the so totally over category, yet another poor sole is committing a double cultural oddity - placing an ad on his head and using eBay to auction off the space. Aside from being sick of this trend, it's been done, one way or another many, many times before. Let's move on.
UPDATE: And now for cleavage advertising.
Today, Pepperidge Farm will launch a new ad campaign featuring "Finn," an animated Goldfish cracker character. The campaign, which includes four :30 ads and three :15 ads, is the first step in the company's planned brand update.
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